Mewar 04: Oghna Panarwa
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Mewar 04: Oghna Panarwa
Oghna Panarwa
Oghna Panarwa is the sole spot in India which enjoys a state of natural freedom. Attached to no State, having no foreign communications, living under its own patriarchal head, its chief, with the title of Rana, whom one thousand hamlets scattered over the forest-crowned valleys obey, can, if requisite, appear at ' the head of five thousand bows.' He is a Bhumia Bhil of mixed blood, from the Solanki Rajput, on the old stock of pure {ujla) Bhils, the autochthones (if such there be of any country) of Mewar. Besides making the tika of blood from an incision in the thmnb, the Oglma chief takes the prince by the arm and seats hun on the throne, while the Undri Bhil holds the salver of spices and sacred grains of rice ^ used in making the tika.
1 Deemed in the East the most impure of all receptacles. These wells are dug at the sides of streams, and give a supply of pure water filtering through the sand.
2 [The right is said to have been enjoyed by the Bhils till the time of Rana Hamir Singh, who died a.d. 1364, and it was recognised in Dungarpur till fairly recent times (Erskine ii. A. 228). The Jats have the same right in Biltaner (Kose, Glossary, ii. 301) : Mers in Porbandar (Wilberforce-Bell, Hist, of Kathiawad, 53 : Kandhs in Kalahandi (Russell, Tribes and Castes Central Provinces, iii. 405, and c/. ii. 280).] 3 Hence, perhaps, the name khushka for tika. [Khuskka, khushk, ' dry,' But the solemnity of being seated on the throne of Mewar is so expensive, that many of these rites have fallen into disuse. Jagat Singh was the last prince whose coronation was conducted with the ancient magnificence of this princely house. It cost the sum of ninety lakhs of rupees (£1,125,000), nearly one entire year's revenue of the State in the days of its prosperity, and which, taking into consideration the comparative value of money, would amount to upwards of four millions sterling ^ [225].
To resume the narrative : though the flight of Bappa and its cause are perfectly natural, we have another episode ; when the bard assuming a higher strain has recourse to celestial machinery for the denouement of this simple incident : but " an illustrious race must always be crowned with its projDer mythology." Bappa who was the founder of a line of a ' hundred kings,' feared as a monarch, adored as more than mortal, and, according to the legend, ' still living ' (charanjiva), deserves to have the source of his pre-eminent fortune disclosed, which, in Mewar, it were sacri lege to doubt. While he pastured the sacred kine in the valleys of Nagindra, the princely shepherd was suspected of appropriat ing the milk of a favourite cow to his own use. He was distrusted and watched, and although indignant, the youth admitted that they had reason to suspect him, from the habitual dryness of the brown cow when she entered the pens at even.^ He watched, and traced her to a narrow dell, when he beheld the udder spon taneously pouring its stores amidst the shrubs. Under a thicket is plain boiled rice without seasoning.] Grains of ground rice in curds is the material of the primitive tika, which the author has had applied to him by a lady in Gujargarh, one of the most savage spots in India, amidst the levee en masne, assembled hostilely against him, but separated amicably.
1 Such the pride of these small kingdoms in days of yore, and such their resources, till reduced by constant oppression ! But their public works sjieak what they could do, and have done ; witness the stupendous work of marble, and its adjacent causeway, which dams the lake of Rajsamand at Kankrauli, and which cost upwards of a juillion. When the spectator views this expanse of water, this ' royal sea ' {rajsamand) on the borders of the plain ; the pillar of victory towering over the plains of Malwa, erected on the summit of Chitor by Rana Mokal ; their palaces and temples in this ancient abode ; the regal residence erected by the princes when ejected, must fill the observer with astonishment at the resources of the State. They are such as to explain the metaphor of my ancient friend Zahm Singh, who knew better than we the value of this country : " Every pinch of the soil of Mewar contains gold."
2 Godhuli, the dust raised at the time when the cows come home. of cane a hermit was reposing in a state of abstraction, from which the impetuosity of the shepherd soon roused him. The mystery was revealed in the phalUc symbol of the ' great God,' which daily received the lacteal shower, and raised such doubts of the veracity of Bappa.
No eye had hitherto penetrated into this natural sanctuary of the rites of the Hindu Creator, except the sages and hermits of ancient days (of whom this was the celebrated Harita),'^ whom this bounteous cow also fed.
Bappa related to the sage all he knew of himself, received his blessing, and retired ; but he went daily to visit him, to wash his feet, carry milk to him, and gather such wild flowers as were acceptable offerings to the deity. In return he received lessons of morality, and was initiated into the mysterious rites of Siva : and at length he was invested with the triple cordon of faith {tin parwa zunnar) ^ by the hands of the sage, who became his spiritual guide, and bestowed on his pupil the title of [226] ' Regent (Diwan) of Eklinga.' Bappa had proofs that his atten tions to the saint and his devotions to Eklinga were acceptable, by a visit from his consort, ' the lion-born goddess.' From her hand he received the panoply of celestial fabrication, the work of Viswakarma (the Vulcan of Eastern mythology), which outvies all the arms ever forged for Greek or Trojan. The lance, bow, quiver, and arrows ; a shield and sword (more famed than Balisarda) * which the goddess girded on him with her own hand : the oath of fidelity and devotion was the ' relief ' of this celestial investiture. Thus initiated into the mysteries of ' the first ' {adi), admitted under the banners of Bhavani, Harita resolved to leave his pupil to his fortunes, and to quit the worship of the symbol for the presence of the deity in the mansions above. He informed Bappa of his design, and commanded him to be at the sacred spot early on the following morn ; but Bappa showed his materiality by oversleeping himself, and on reaching the spot the sage had already made some progress in his car, borne by the
1 On this spot the celebrated temple of Eklinga was erected, and the present high priest traces sixty-six descents from Harita to himself. To him (through the Rana) I was indebted for the copy of the Sheo (Siva) Purana presented to the Royal Asiatic Society.
2 [Zunnar is an Arabic word, the Hindi janeo.]
3 [The sword stolen from Orlando by Brunello, given to Rogero (Ariosto, Orlando Fvrioso).]
Apsaras, or celestial messengers. He cheeked his aerial ascent to give a last token of affection to his pupil ; and desiring him to reach up to receive his blessing, Bappa's stature was extended to twenty cubits ; but as he did not reach the car, he was com manded to open his mouth, when the sage did what was recorded as performed, about the same period, by Muhammad, who spat into the mouth of his favourite nephew, Husain, the son of Ali. Bappa showed his disgust and aversion by blinking, and the pro jected blessing fell on his foot, by which squeamishness he ob tained only invulnerability by weapons instead of immortality. The saint was soon lost in the cerulean space. Thus marked as the favourite of heaven, and having learned from his mother that he was nephew to the Mori prince of Chitor, he ' disdained a shepherd's slothful life,' and with some companions from these wilds quitted his retreat, and for the first time emerged into the plains. But, as if the brand of Bhavani was insufficient, he met with another hermit in the forest of the Tiger Mount,"^ the famed Gorakiinath, who presented to him the double-edged sword, ^ which, with the proper incantation, could ' sever rocks.' With this he opened the road to fortune leading to the throne of Chitor [227].
Chitor was at this period held by the Mori prince of the Pramar race, the ancient lords of IMalwa, then paramount sovereigns of Hindustan : but whether this city was then the chief seat of power is not known. Various public works, reservoirs, and bastions, yet retain the name of this race.
Bappa's connexion with the Mori ^ obtained hiin a good recep
1 The Nahra Magra, seven miles from the eastern pass leading to the capital, where the prince has a hunting seat surrounded bj' several others belonging to the nobles, but all going to decay. The tiger and wild boar now prowl unmolested, as none of the ' uuMcensed ' dare shoot in these royal preserves.
2 They surmise that this is the individual blade which is yet annually worshipped by the sovereign and chiefs on its appropriate day, one of the nine sacred to the god of war ; a rite completely Scythic. I had this relation from the chief genealogists of the family, who gravely rejDeated the incanta tion : " By the preceptor, Gorakhnath and the great god, EkUnga ; by Takshka the serpent, and the sage Harita ; by Bhavani (Pallas) etrike ! "
3 Bappa's mother was a Pramar, probably from Abu or Chandra vati, near to Idar J and consequently Bappa was nephew to every Pramar in existence. [The Morya or Maurya sub-clan of the Pramars still exists (Ce7isus Beport, Rajputana, 1911, i. 255. For traces of the Mauryas in W. India see BG, i. Part ii. 284, note.]
tion ; he was enrolled amongst the sawants or leaders, and a suitable estate conferred upon him. The inscription of the Mori prince's reign, so often alluded to, affords a good idea of his power, and of the feudal manners of his court. He was surrounded by a numerous nobility, holding estates on the tenure of military service, but whom he had disgusted by his neglect, and whose jealousy he had provoked by the superior regard shown to Bappa. A foreign foe appearing at this time, instead of obeying the summons to attend, they threw up their grants, and tauntingly desired him to call on his favourite.^
Bappa undertook the conduct of the war, and the chiefs, though dispossessed of their estates, accompanied him from a feeling of shame. The foe was defeated and driven out of the coimtry ; but instead of returning to Chitor, Bappa continued his course to the ancient seat of his family, Gajni, expelled the ' barbarian ' called Salim, placed on the throne a chief of the Chaura tribe,^ and returned with the discontented nobles. Bappa, on this occasion, is said to have married the daughter of his enemy. The nobles quitted Chitor, leaving their defiance with their prince. In vain were the spiritual preceptor (Guru) and foster-brother (Dhabhai) sent as ambassadors : their only reply was, that as they had ' eaten his salt,' they would forbear their vengeance for twelve months. The noble deportment of Bappa won their esteem, and they transferred to him their service and homage. With the temptation of a crown, the gratitude of the Grahilot was given to the winds. On return they assaulted and carried Chitor, and, in the words of J-he chronicle, " Bappa took Chitor from the Mori and became himself tJie mor (crown) of the land " : he obtained by vmiversal consent the title of ' sun of the Hindus {Hindiia suraj), preceptor of princes (Raj Guru), and universal lord {Chakravartin) ' [228].
He had a numerous progeny, some of whom returned to their ancient seats in Saurashtra, whose descendants were powerful chieftains in that tract so late as Akbar's reign.* Five sons went to Marwar, and the ancient Gohils ' of the land of Kher,' expelled
1We are furnished with a catalogue of the tribes which served the Mori prince, which is extremely valuable, froni its acquainting us with the names of tribes no longer existing. 2 [iSee p. 121, above.] 3 See Aln, ii. 247, which speaks of fifty thousand [8000] Guhilots in Sorath. and driven to Gohilwal/ have lost sight of their ancestry, and by a singular fatality are in possession of the wreck of Valabhi pura, ignorant of its history and their connexion with it, mixing with Arabs and following maruie and mercantile pursuits ; and the office of the bard having fallen into disrepute, they cannot trace their forefathers beyond Kherdhar.
The close of Bappa's career is the strangest part of the legend, and which it might be expected they would be solicitous to sup press. Advanced in years, he abandoned his children and his comitry, carried his arms west to Khorasan, and there established himself, and married new wives from among the ' barbarians,' by whom he had a numerous offspring.'
Bappa had reached the patriarchal age of one hundred when he died. An old volume of historical anecdotes, belonging to the chief of Delwara, states that he became an ascetic at the foot of Meru, where he was buried alive after having overcome all the kings of the west, as in Ispahan, Kandahar, Kashmir, Irak, Iran, Turan, and Kafiristan ; all of whose daughters he married, and by whom he had one hundred and thirty sons, called the Naus shahra Pathans. Each of these founded a tribe, bearing the name of the mother. His Hindu children were ninety-eight in number, and were called Agni-upasi Surj'avansi, or ' simborn fire-worsiiippers.' The chronicles also record that (in like manner as did the subjects of the Bactrian king Menander, though from a different motive) the subjects of Bajipa quarrelled for the dis posal of his remains. The Hindu wished the fire to consume them ; the ' barbarian ' to commit them to eartl; ; but on raising the pall while the dispute was raging, uinumerable flowers of the lotus were found in the place of the remains of mortality : these were conveyed and planted in the lake. This is precisely what is related of the end of the Persian Nushirwan * [229].
1 Pepara Guhilots. 2 The ' land of Kher,' on the south-west frontier of Marw ar, near the Luni river. 3 The. reigning prince told the author that there was no doubt of Bappa having ended his days among ' the Turks ' : a term now apjjlied to all Muhammadans by the Hmdu, but at that time confined to the inhabitants of Turkistan, the Turushka of the Puranas, and the Takshak of early in scriptions.
4 [Recent inquiries identify Bappa, whose name is merely a title, with either Mahendraji ii. or Kalbhoja, early chiefs of Mewar (Erskine ii. B. 8). It
The Question of Dates
Having thus briefly sketched the history of the founder of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar, we must now endeavour to estabUsh the epoch of this important event in its annals. Although Bappa Rawal was nine generations after the sack of Valabhipura, the domestic annals give S. 191 (a.d. 135) for his birth ; which the bards implicitly following, have vitiated the whole chronology. An important inscription ^ in a character little known, establishes the fact of the Mori dynasty being in possession of Chitor in S. 770 (a.d. 714). Now the annals of the Rana's house expressly state Bappa Rawal to be the nejDhew of the Mori prince of Chitor ; that at the age of fifteen he was enrolled amongst the chieftains of his uncle, and that the vassals (before alluded to), in revenge for the resumption of their grants by the Mori, dethroned him and elevated as their sovereign the youthful Bappa. Notwithstanding this apparently irreconcilable anachronism, the family traditions accord with the inscription, except in date. Amidst such contradictions the development of the truth seemed impossible.
Another valuable inscription of S. 1024 (a.d. 968), though giving the genealogy from Bappa to Sakti Kumar and corroborating that, from Chitor, and which furnished convincing evidence, was not sanctioned by the prince or his chroniclers, who would admit nothing as valid that militated against their established era 191 for the birth of their founder. After six years' residence and unremitting search amid ruins, archives, inscriptions, traditions, and whatever could throw light upon this point, the author quitted Udaipur with all these doubts in his mind, for Saurashtra, to prosecute his inquiries in the pristine abodes of the race.
Then it was that he was rewarded, beyond his most sanguine expectations, by the discovery of an inscription which reconciled these conflicting authorities and removed every difficulty. This marble, found in the celebrated temple of Somnath,^ made mention of a distinct era, viz. the has been suggested that his legend is mixed up with that of Bappa or Saila of Valabhi, the story of his retreat to Iran representing the latter being carried as a captive to Mansura on the fall of Valabhi or Gandhar {BG, i. Part i. 94, note 2). In any case, the Avhole story is mere legend, a tale like that of the mysterious disappearance of Romulus and other kings (Sir J. Frazcr, Lectures on the Early History of the Kingship, 269 ff.)- A similar tale is told of Rana Uda in later Mewar history.]
1 Vide Appendix, Translation, No. II. 2 See Translation, No. III. Valabhi Samvat, as being used in Saurashtra ; which era was three hundred and seventy-five years subsequent to Vikramaditya.^
On the sack of Valabhi thirty thousand families abandoned this ' city of a hundred temples,' and led by their priests found a retreat for themselves and their faith [230] in Mordardes (Marwar), where they erected the towns of Sandrai and Bali, in which latter we recognise the name of the city whence they were expelled. The religion of Valabhi, and consequently of the colonists, was the Jain ; and it was by a priest descended from the survivors of this catastrophe, and still with their descendants inhabiting those towns, that these most important documents were fur nished to the author. The Sandrai roll assigns the year 305 (Valabhi era) for the destruction of Valabhi : another, also from Jain authority, gives 205 ; and as there were but nine princes from Vijayasen, the founder, to its fall, we can readily believe the first a numerical error. Therefore 205 + 375 = 580 S. Vikrama (a.d. 524), for the invasion of Saurashtra by ' the barbarians from the north,' and sack of Valabhipura.
Now if from 770, the date of the Mori tablet, we deduct 580, there remains 190 ; justifying the pertinacity with which the chroniclers of Mewar adhered to the date given in their annals for the birth of Bappa, viz. 191 : though they were ignorant that this period was dated from the fiight from Valabhipura.
Bappa, when he succeeded to the Mori prince, is said to have been fifteen years old ; and his birth being one year anterior to the Mori inscription of 770-{-14 = S.V. 784 (a.d. 728),^ is the period for the foundation of the Guhilot dynasty in Mewar : since which, during a space of eleven hundred years, fifty-nine princes lineally descended from Bappa have sat on the throne of Chitor.
Though the bards and chroniclers will never forgive the temer ity which thus curtails the antiquity of their founder, he is yet placed in the dawn of chivalry, when the Carlovingian dynasty
1 [The Valabhi era begins in a.d. 318-19.]
2 This will make Bappa's attainment of Chitor fifteen years posterior to Muhammad bin Kasim's invasion. I have observed generally a discrepancy of ten years between the Samvat and Hegira ; the Hegira reckoned from the sixteenth year of Muhammad's mission, and would if employed reconcile this difficulty. [The traditional dates are untrustworthy, being based on a confused reminiscence of Valabhi history (lA, xv. 275). A hst of the chiefs of Mewar, with the dates as far as can be ascertained, is given by Erskine (ii. B. 8 ff.).] was established in the west, and when Walid, whose bands planted ' the green standard ' on the Ebro, was ' commander of the" faithful.'
From the deserted and now forgotten ' city of the sun,' Aitpur, the abode of wild beasts and savage Bhils. another memorial ^ of the princes of Me war was obtained. It relates to the prince Sakti Kumar. Its date is S. 1024 (a.d. 968), and it contains the names of fourteen of his ancestors in regular succession. Amongst these is Bappa, or Saila. When compared with the chronicles and [231] family archives, it was highly gratifying to find that, with the exception of one superfluous name and the transposition of others, they v/ere in perfect accordance.
Hume says, " Poets, though they disfigure the most certain history by their fictions, and use strange liberties with truth, when they are the sole historians, as among the Britons, have commonly some foundation for their wildest exaggerations." The remark is applicable here ; for the names which had been mouldering for nine centuries, far from the abode of man, are the same they had worked into their poetical legends. It was at this exact epoch that the arms of Islam, for the first time, crossed the Indus. In the ninety-fifth year of the Hegira,^ Muhammad bin Kasim, the general of the Caliph Walid, conquered Sind, and penetrated (according to early Arabian authors) to the Ganges ; and although Elmacin mentions only Sind, yet other Hindu States were at this period convulsed from the same cause : witness the overthrow of Manikrae of Ajmer, in the middle of the eighth century, by a foe ' coming in ships,' Anjar specified as the point where they landed. If any doubt existed that it was Kasim who advanced to Chitor * and was defeated by Bappa, it was set at rest by finding at this time in Chitor ' Dahir,* the prince of Debil.'
1 See Translation of Inscription, No. IV. 2 A.D. 713, or S. 769 : the Inscription 770 of Man Mori, against whom came the ' barbarian.' I was informed by a friend, who had seen the papers of Captain Mac murdo, that he had a notice of Kasim's having penetrated to Dungarpur. Had this gentleman Uved, he would have thrown much light on these Western antiquities. [Muhammad bin Kasim does not seem to have attacked Ajmer : the place was not founded till a.d. 1000 (Watson, Gazetteer, i. A. 9).]
- By an orthographical error, the modern Hindu, ignorant of Debal, has
written Delhi. But there was no lord of Delhi at this time : he is styled Dahir, Despat (lord) of Debal, from dea, ' a country,' and pat, ' the head.' Abii-1 Fazl ^ records, from Arabian authorities, that Dahir was lord of Sind, and resided at his capital, Debal, the first place captured by Kasim in 95. His miserable end, and the destruction of his house, are mentioned by the historian, and account for the son being found with the Mori prince of Chitor.
Nine princes intervened between Bappa and Sakti Kumar, in two centuries (twenty-two years to each reign) : just the time which should elapse from the founder, who ' abandoned his country for Iran,' in S. 820, or a.d. 764. Having thus established
1 Kanaksen, A.D. 144 ; 2, Siladitya, and sack of Valabhi, a.d. 52 4 ; 3, Estab lishment in Chitor and Mewar, a.d. 720 ; 4, Sakti Kumar, a.d. 1068 ; ^ we may endeavour to relieve this narrative by the notices which regard their Persian descent [232].
